Lakers add Anton Watson on Exhibit 10 deal. Image via: David Gonzales-Imagn Images
The Lakers announced Thursday that they’ve added the 6-foot-8 forward on an Exhibit 10 deal, a low-risk move that hands him a runway into training camp. The move became official when Los Angeles confirmed it through a press release Thursday, bringing Anton Watson aboard on an Exhibit 10 contract. The 25-year-old forward isn’t walking in as an unknown. Across 50 games there in 2025-26, he averaged 11.0 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.4 steals in just over 27 minutes a night.
Anton Watson gets another shot at sticking in the league with a team built around Luka Doncic. It’s the kind of signing that barely makes a ripple on its own, but for a roster still shuffling pieces before opening night, every training camp body matters. Watson now gets to make his case in front of a coaching staff building around Doncic’s leadership. It’s a standard tool for teams at this point in the calendar, minimal financial commitment, but a real invitation to compete. For Watson, it means a spot in camp and a shot at landing one of the team’s two-way slots once the roster gets trimmed down. He spent last season carrying real weight for the South Bay Lakers, the franchise’s G League affiliate, and the front office clearly noticed. Before any of that, Watson built his name at Gonzaga, where he closed out his college career as a First-team All-WCC selection. That two-way toughness, the kind that shows up more in rebounding numbers and hustle plays than in scoring totals, is part of what’s kept him in NBA circles despite not yet carving out a steady rotation role.